If it doesn't taste good, why eat it?

dog treats

I am a doggie-mama. My 22-pound all black pug is named Duncan. Being one of the smaller breeds of dog, he is prone to weight management issues and must be carefully fed and well-exercised. The easiest way for me to keep his weight under control is to make all of his food and snacks so that I know exactly what is going into them, and can adjust as necessary.

Duncan came to me via a rescue organization called PRONE. When I first met him, he was living in foster care and the agreement was that I’d meet him in person to see if our personalities were a good match before beginning the adoption process. So the night before our meeting I stayed up late and baked dozens of these peanut butter cookies, cut into tiny, pug-sized bites. I brought them with me in a 1/2 pint Chinese take-out container and won him over.

Since Duncan only gets about 6 or so cookies a day, and this recipe makes about 370 cookies in his size, I freeze them. Once they’re completely cooled I stuff them into a freezer bag or plastic storage container, taking out only a few at a time. They thaw in just a few minutes. This works out great for travel too as I always have snacks on hand.

Ingredients:

1 cup natural peanut butter

1 cup skim milk (non-fat soy milk may be substituted)

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375

In a medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together the flour and baking powder

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the peanut butter and milk

Add the flour mixture to the peanut butter mixture and mix until it comes together in a ball

the dough

Remove from mixing bowl and knead for a minute

Roll the dough out to ¼-inch thick (I use wood dowels to ensure uniform thickness)

using dowels ensures uniform thickness

Cut into the shapes of your choice and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet

all lined up and ready for the oven

Bake. For smaller shapes, bake for 15 minutes, for larger ones- 20 minutes. The longer the cookies bake for, the crunchier they will be